Burn
by Pandora151
Summary: "Do you ever feel as though your life is slowly and gradually falling apart, and you, despite all you've done and accomplished, are powerless to stop it?" Takes place right after Twilight Princess. Link and Zelda return to Hyrule Castle after Midna shatters the Mirror of Twilight.


**Hello guys!**

**So, I guess writing a post-game Zelda fic has become a habit of mine, even though this is only the second one. Again, I spent a few hours writing it. The difference between this one and the Skyward Sword one, Worth it All, is the amount of thought and emotional angst.**

**Honestly, some of the deep emotional stuff from this fic reflect my own thoughts because life has been somewhat difficult to me lately. *sighs***

**So this is my way of ranting. Kinda. I took my own frustrations and formed into a TP thing because I felt like Link would have been really upset after Midna shattered the Mirror. Just so we're clear, it takes place after that.**

**So, anyways. It's late and I'm rambling now. Happy reading! :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Zelda.**

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She quickly opened the door to one of the guest rooms and gently pulled him inside, whispering to a servant to get bandages. "We're here," she told him, and he opened his eyes, blinking a few times. His vision was blurry and he felt blood leaking out of the wound on his right calf. It was stupid, really. He lost focus—just for a moment—when battling Ganondorf, and the nefarious warlord was able to cut deeply into Link's leg with his sword. Link quickly defeated him soon afterwards. Before leaving with Midna and Zelda for the Mirror Chamber, he quickly wrapped the injury with bandaging cloth. Midna teleported the three of them to the chamber, and then...

He shook his head suddenly, trying to forget about the emptiness that gathered in his chest. Immediately his vision swam, and he grabbed the foot of the bed with his left hand. He sat heavily on the bed and, with Zelda's help, removed and placed his sword, shield, and pouches on the dresser next to the bed. The effort left him exhausted, but he said nothing, not even when the servant arrived with the bandages. She asked him to lie down so that she could properly examine his leg.

He obediently did as she requested, lying back down on the bed as the princess slowly unwrapped the blood-and-dirt-stained bandages. She could not help but gasp in shock as she stared at the deep wound. It was oozing pus and blood, and ran diagonally from his kneecap to his ankle. It clearly was infected, and this left Zelda extremely anxious. The royal healer died a few days ago, and it would be difficult to find someone so quickly...

Zelda sighed in exasperation. "Why did you not say it was that bad, Link?" She barely knew him, considering the other two times she had met him he was a wolf, so it was difficult to understand his actions. The hero made an incoherent noise, but she ignored him and began wrapping his leg.

His sweaty face contorted slightly sometimes, but he gave no other indication of the pain he was in. Zelda saw him shiver violently, and she turned quickly to tell the servant behind her to get more blankets. Finally, they were alone. The silence, for all its intensity, spoke a million words between them. The servant returned with the blankets, and was immediately dismissed afterwards. Link accepted the blankets, but did not try to fall asleep. He simply stared ahead at the ceiling, his thoughts far away.

"Link?" Zelda asked finally. He did not respond; the only way she was able to tell he heard was by the way he blinked suddenly into awareness. "How are you feeling?" He turned slowly towards her, his eyes burning partially with fever and with emotional agony. Zelda wondered briefly what was hurting him more—the infection or Midna's sudden and slightly rash departure.

The hero glanced at her briefly. "I don't know," he muttered softly. His expression was suddenly very guarded, and Zelda knew that there so much more in his mind than what he was actually saying. Part of her wanted to force him to speak, to yell and scream at him until he actually _understood_ why she was so curious about him. Instead, she sighed.

After a few moments, she tried again. "Sometimes, it helps to talk about it," she said bluntly. His expressive eyes were fixed on hers again, and she found it difficult—almost impossible—to look away. "It is not good to keep all of the frustration inside and I am probably one of the few people who know what happened to you on your journey," she continued. He seemed to be challenging her with his gaze, almost asking _do you really want to know?_, but she met his gaze evenly and expectedly.

Finally, he slumped slightly, closing his eyes and rolling his head slightly forwards. She wondered if he fell asleep, but moments later, he blinked a few times and then cleared his throat. "You're right," he said aloud. It was the first time she heard him talk clearly; he hardly said a word when battling Ganondorf and mumbled a few things here and there in the aftermath, but nothing like this. His voice was...warm. It reminded Zelda of a strong, yet persistent fire, burning in the darkest of times. But when the light returned, what exactly was the purpose of the fire?

"Do you ever feel as though your life is slowly and gradually falling apart, and you, despite all you've done and accomplished, are powerless to stop it?" he began, breathing heavily. Zelda opened her mouth to respond, but Link continued talking, speaking so quickly that Zelda struggled to understand him sometimes. "It's as though things are tearing apart slightly at the seams and all you could do is sit there and watch. You feel, at one point, as though it's all lost. There's no point of _trying_ to fix anything because literally everything has gone wrong and trying to fix it all at this point would just make it worse," he explained. Saying all those words seemed to take too much energy because he stopped suddenly, sweating and gulping for air.

"Link, I—" she started, but was interrupted again.

"No," he gasped, raising his hand slightly from its position on the bed. "Let me finish." He took a few more calming breaths then continued. "So you just sit there and let it happen, thinking _oh, it can't possibly get worse than this_. But after a few days—maybe a week—you realize it has gotten so much worse and you are truly powerless."

The words left her speechless, and she tried to look at things from his perspective and _realized_ what exactly he meant. "When Midna shattered the Mirror, I realized that I lost the last person who actually knew everything I had gone through and pushed me through everything. I can't count the number of times I've fallen down and she would convince me to get back up and keep fighting. She has supported me and now..." He couldn't finish the sentence, closing his eyes in exhaustion.

"Link," Zelda responded. As his eyes opened, she continued speaking. "The fact that you succeeded and saved this whole world from Ganondorf proves that you are no failure. You are not powerless. It is because of you that I am alive, that everyone here in this kingdom is alive, and that Midna is able to return to her kingdom and rule as the Twilight Princess. You." She smiled softly at him as his eyes began to droop in exhaustion. She did not know if he could hear her, but she continued talking anyway, gently laying the blankets properly on top of him. "I will send for Renado right now so he can treat you tomorrow, and then we can discuss this, Link," she explained. The hero mumbled in his sleep about goats, and Zelda almost laughed.

She quietly exited, closing the door behind her and walking towards her room to write that message to the shaman of Kakariko. Zelda stopped by a window in the hallway, watching the brilliant sun rise into the dawn sky.

Of course, the fire would burn continuously like the sun, both in the darkest and lightest of times.

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***cringes* I know, the ending.**

**I have a tendency to rush the endings of my stories, and honestly I have no idea if this is good. It seems really cheesy to me though. Does that metaphor even make sense? I don't even know. This story, to me, is a release for me. Life's tough and this is my way of fixing the frustrations.**

**Anyways, please review and let me know what you think!**

**~Pandora**


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